Spin Polarimeters Research Articles

Improvement of Mott spin polarimeters: An overlooked redundancy.

In Mott polarimeters, the measurement of the spin polarization of an electron beam along two perpendicular quantization axes is commonly performed by collecting scattered electrons with four independent detectors placed azimuthally at 90° from each other. However, the four intensities are not independent quantities. This overlooked redundancy will be pointed out, and it will be shown how to use it in order to better design, calibrate, and operate Mott polarimeters.

New Developments in Spin-Dependent Photoemission

The electron spin governs many phenomena in modern condensed matter physics, such as magnetism, superconductivity, etc. Often, minute details in the electronic structure determine the physical behavior of a material. Photoelectron emission—being the most established approach to explore electronic structures—is currently entering a new era thanks to a breathtaking development in light sources, spectrometer concepts, and spin detectors. In particular, the evolution in novel highly efficient electron spin polarimeters opens up new experimental opportunities and permits unequaled insights into the electronic structure. This contribution will discuss several examples in this field of spin-dependent interactions and spin-based phenomena. A prominent one refers to the class of topological insulators, where strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) causes a unique spin-momentum locking around the Dirac cone. Transition metal dichalcogenides consist of quasi-2D layers coupled by v. d. Waals interactions. Here, strong SOC leads to pronounced hybridization effects. We also address fundamental issues in ferromagnetism, e.g., the complex interplay of SOC and exchange interaction, causing characteristic k-, spin- and symmetry-dependent band mixing. Using spin- and time-resolved photoemission we explore ultrafast spin dynamics in ferromagnets driven by strong ultrashort laser pulses. We find the changes in both majority and minority spin states to take place on a 100 fs time scale and to be compatible with band mirroring. In this contribution, we will discuss several new aspects of spin-dependent and spin-resolved photoemission covering both static and dynamic issues of electronic states. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2018.177]

Performance of photoelectron spin polarimeters with continuous and pulsed sources: from storage rings to free electron lasers.

In this work the experimental uncertainties concerning electron spin polarization (SP) under various realistic measurement conditions are theoretically derived. The accuracy of the evaluation of the SP of the photoelectron current is analysed as a function of the detector parameters and specifications, as well as of the characteristics of the photoexcitation sources. In particular, the different behaviour of single counter or twin counter detectors when the intensity fluctuations of the source are considered have been addressed, leading to a new definition of the SP detector performance. The widely used parameter called the figure of merit is shown to be inadequate for describing the efficiency of SP polarimeters, especially when they are operated with time-structured excitation sources such as free-electron lasers. Numerical simulations have been performed and yield strong implications in the choice of the detecting instruments in spin-polarization experiments, that are constrained in a limited measurement time. Our results are therefore applied to the characteristics of a wide set of state-of-the-art spectroscopy facilities all over the world, and an efficiency diagram for SP experiments is derived. These results also define new mathematical instruments for handling the correct statistics of SP measurements in the presence of source intensity fluctuations.

Design of a multi-channel spin polarimeter**Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (10979021, 11027401, 11174054, 11304338, 11227902), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2011CB921800) and the “Strategic Priority Research Program (B)” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB04010100)

All commercial electron spin polarimeters work in single channel mode, which is the bottleneck of researches by spin-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. By adopting the time inversion antisymmetry of the magnetic field, we developed a multichannel spin polarimeter based on normal incident very low energy electron diffraction (VLEED). The key point to achieve the multi-channel measurements is the spatial resolution of the electron optics. The test of the electron optics shows that the designed spatial resolution can be achieved and an image type spin polarimeter with 100 times 100, totally ten thousand channels is possible to be realized.

Highly Efficient Multichannel Spin-Polarization Detection

Since the original work by Mott, the low efficiency of electron spin polarimeters, remaining orders of magnitude behind optical polarimeters, has prohibited many fundamental experiments. Here we report a solution to this problem using a novel concept of multichannel spin-polarization analysis that provides a stunning increase in efficiency by 4 orders of magnitude. This improvement was demonstrated in a setup using a hemispherical electron energy analyzer. An imaging setup proved the principal capability of resolving more than 10(5) data points in parallel.

Spin detectors operating in the medium-energy range

Solid-state spin filters consisting of ultrathin ferromagnetic layers can be used as convenient spin polarimeters. A few years ago, a good sensitivity was demonstrated using a Pd∕Fe bilayer deposited onto a n-type ozonized GaAs substrate, the spin detector being operated around 800eV primary energy. From the analysis of the experimental data, a spin-dependent transport scheme is proposed. This provides keys for the practical development of spin filters in the keV range, an energy domain which is well suited for application, and opens perspectives in the study of hot-electron transport in metals.

Ferromagnetic resonant tunneling diodes as spin polarimeters

A method for measuring the degree of spin polarization of magnetic materials based on spin-dependent resonant tunneling is proposed. The device we consider is a ballistic double-barrier resonant structure consisting of a ferromagnetic layer embedded between two insulating barriers. A simple procedure, based on a detailed analysis of the differential conductance, allows one to accurately determine the polarization of the ferromagnet. The spin-filtering character of such a system is furthermore addressed. We show that a 100% spin selectivity can be achieved under appropriate conditions. This approach is believed to be well suited for the investigation of diluted magnetic semiconductor heterostructures.

Monte Carlo calculations for the design of Mott scattering spin polarimeters

Using the Monte Carlo method, we have calculated, for 50 keV electrons incident on a gold target, the dependence of the effective Sherman asymmetry function and scattered intensity on the target thickness and inelastic energy loss window for scattering angles from 90° to 180°. Our results show that, when the gold target is thicker than 700 Å or the inelastic energy loss window is larger than 1200 eV, the scattered intensity is maximum at a scattering angle of about 120°, and the effective Sherman function is almost constant over a wide range of scattering angles. Thus, for Mott scattering spin polarimeters, the electron detectors should be positioned at ±120°, and the larger the collection angle for scattered electrons, the higher the efficiency of the Mott polarimeter.